The Life Aquatic
I spent most of New Years Day feeling, shall we say, a bit under the weather (let’s just say that the restaurant we ate at the night before has been called one of the five best places in the country to drink tequila). Nonetheless, some friends did manage to coax me away from my deathbed long enough to catch one of the movies I’d most been looking forward to: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.
Rushmore is one of my favorite movies, and I liked The Royal Tenenbaums, but based on its lukewarm critical reception, I had low expectations for Wes Anderson’s latest effort. Fortunately, the movie was well worth braving the waves of debilitating nausea I was feeling.
Certainly, Anderson’s movies don’t appeal to everyone. Unlike, say, The Aviator, which I thought was a masterpiece of structure, the plots of Tenenbaums and Zissou tend to be almost secondary to character and setting. Rather than following a distinct arc, Anderson’s characters tend to meander dejectedly from episode to episode, finally finding peace with themselves and others in the end (seemingly more out of weary resignation than any great personal epiphany). I also think Anderson’s pacing tends make his films seem a bit long, and they’re not exactly what you’d call “laugh out loud funny.”
If those are the kind of things that bother you, then Zissou is definitely not the movie for you. If, on the other hand, you’re the kind of person who laughs hysterically at the absurd image of an enraged and Speedo clad Bill Murray engaged in a pitched firefight with Filipino pirates, or who claps delightedly upon recognizing the opening strains of “Life on Mars” as sung in Portuguese and accompanied on a classical guitar, or who appreciates Anderson’s devotion to Futura, or who lusts after a pair of limited edition Team Zissou Adidas, then you will walk away happy. I certainly did.